The new system is characterized by the fact that the chamber is not fundamentally fixed. On the contrary, it is rotative, formed by two rotary half-chambers, with at least one displacer or piston each, jointed to each one of them, closing its own half-chamber and penetrating respectively by sliding in the hollow of the other half-chamber, creating at least two compartments that alternatively vary their volume.
The axes of each rotary half-chamber rotate inside a fixed structure that supports them. This structure may be open or contain a hermetically closed, airtight compartment, working lie a sort of crankcase.
In one of its versions, the structure bears a ring where the openings for the intake and outlet of fluids are located. Leaning against the lateral sides opposite to this ring, run each rotary half-chamber, closing the main chamber. At least one piston fixed to each half-chamber seals up a sector of the same and slides itself into the other rotary half-chamber, dividing the chamber into at least two compartments. When the rotary half-chambers are set in motion by an adequate mechanism of alternatively opposite velocities (sliding arms, eccentric gears, elliptics, cone with planetary gears, etc.), they alternatively vary the volumes of the half-cambers' compartments.
In another version, the two half-chambers work totally placed against each other, and each of them has, preferably near the displacer, an opening serving for the intake and outlet of fluids. A ring on the fixed structure, external to the rotary half-chambers, properly sealed up, which bears intake and outlet openings, alternatively closes and opens the intake and outlet of fluids, as the openings of the half-chambers slide along it.
In a third realization, one of the rotary half-chambers makes up the central body and one of the sides of the main chamber, and the other rotary half-chamber forms the external part and the other side of the chamber.
The structure inside which the two half-chambers work may be open, allowing for the free circulation of air, or else hermetically closed, harboring a hollow inside which lubricating and/or refrigerating (etc.) fluids can be placed, a variable pressures.
Using this new system, it is possible to build compression or suction pumps, or otherwise pumps that operate on the motion of fluids or gases, internal combustion engines or motors run by the internal heating or cooling of fluids, or are drive by fluid pressure, etc.
Systems of compressors or engines that operate with two rotors, with a least one piston each, are already well-known. The two rotors operate inside a fixed chamber, dividing it into at least two compartments that vary in volume by means of some kind of special mechanism (sliding arms, eccentric gears, elliptics, or planetary gears, etc.), that drives them at alternatively opposite variable velocities.
These systems present important problems in the areas of sealing up, heating and friction, when compared with the alternative or eccentric rotating systems. It is these problems that have prevented their commercialization to date.
The models known to the present are based on the principle that when two rotors are set in motion inside a fixed chamber, a segment of these rotors carries a displacer or piston that operates closing the chamber and dividing it into at least two compartments. In some models, the displacer also operates partly over the body of the other rotor. The present invention proposes a rotary chamber made up of two rotary half-chambers, and its purpose is to provide a new form of construction that in several fundamental fields goes beyond the known models or systems for the construction of engines or rotative compressors known to date, based on the principle of the alternate variation of velocity of the two rotors.
The advantages of the present invention are clearly expressed on the following fundamental items.
1) Sealing up: decreasing the size of the areas to be sealed up, since each rotary half-chamber has a fixed sealing up of its hollow, and the displacer or piston only operates sliding over the other half-chamber, which reduces by up to 50% the areas to be sealed up.
2) Friction: decreasing friction, not only on account of the lesser areas to be sealed up, but also because the areas of the other half-chamber where the displacer moves in a sliding way are in a relative motion in the same direction. For instance, when one of the rotors turns in a circular arc of 90°, the other turns in the same direction in an arc of 270°, the relative movement between the two rotors being 180°. If this same movement were realized in relation to a fixed chamber, we would have a sum of the movements equivalent to a 360° arc.
3) Heating: to this day, the known models carried out the operations of compression, or explosion, that generate heat only on one side of the chamber and those that lower the temperature on the other side (suction and exhaustion). This fact causes an unbalanced dilation that jeopardizes the sealing and increases friction.
The present invention, not having a fixed chamber inside which the rotors with their respective pistons operate, alternates the different parts of the chamber, those that receive heat and those that are cooled, homogenizing continuously and entirely the temperature of the half-chambers, thus preventing a thermal deformation of the same. On the other hand, if the half-chambers rotate within a fixed structure properly sealed up with some sort of refrigerating fluid, this would help to homogenize temperature even more.
Besides these three critical advantages of the present invention, that render possible to utilize the principle of rotors moving at various and alternatively opposite velocities in the construction of equipment without the deficiencies that made it impossible, to this day, that the systems displayed advantages as compared to the systems of alternative or eccentric rotating pistons. Further advantages will be pointed out in the areas of refrigeration, lubrication and sealing up of the whole set and in its construction.
The fixed structure inside which the half-chambers move can be easily sealed up and a cooling liquid can be placed inside it.
It is also possible to put a lubricating fluid inside. It can flow through appropriate ducts driven into the half-chambers by centrifugal force or by pressure right to the pistons.
Otherwise, the lubricating liquid can be cooled to maintain the ideal operating temperature.
The sealing up of the structure where the rotors run allows for the creation of a compartment where it is possible to increase pressure, making the sealing between the chambers easier by means of the fixed ring, as well as between the half-chambers, insulating the apparatus from the environment in which it works.
Another advantage presented by the use of the rotary half-chambers is that, as the size of the sliding part of the pistons is reduced by up to 50%, it becomes possible to build longer engines or compressors, consequently with a smaller diameter, and this will bring down the vibrations caused by centrifugal force, allowing for the operation at higher velocities with lower vibrations.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.